Prosecution rests in trial of Karen Read who's charged in death of
Boston police officer boyfriend
[May 30, 2025]
By PATRICK WHITTLE and MICHAEL CASEY
The prosecution in the second trial of Karen Read rested Thursday after
about a month of testimony spotlighting evidence from the scene and
witnesses who heard the defendant repeatedly say “I hit him” in
reference to the killing of her Boston police officer boyfriend.
Read, 45, is accused of backing her SUV into her boyfriend, John
O’Keefe, and leaving the 46-year-old officer to die on a snowy night in
the front yard of another officer’s home after she dropped him off at a
party there in January 2022. Her lawyers say she was framed in a police
conspiracy and someone in the home that night killed him.
A mistrial was declared last year and the second trial has attracted
massive media attention and become the subject of a Hulu documentary
series. Read’s second trial on charges of second-degree murder,
manslaughter and leaving the scene has often looked similar to the first
trial. If she is found guilty of the most serious charge of
second-degree murder, she could spend the rest of her life in prison.
Simplified approach
The prosecution, led this time by Hank Brennan, has taken a more
streamlined, focused approach.
Unlike the first trial where witness after witness undermined the
prosecution's case, Brennan did everything to avoid those mistakes. Most
significantly, he refrained from putting Michael Proctor, the lead
investigator in the case, on the stand.
Proctor was fired in March after a disciplinary board found he sent
sexist and crude text messages about Read to his family and colleagues.
His testimony played a key role in the first trial. Defense attorneys
used his text messages to attempt to show Proctor was biased and ignored
the possibility of other suspects.
Brennan also didn't put Brian Albert, the Boston officer who owned the
house where O'Keefe's body was found, on the stand. He also passed on
putting on Brian Higgins, a federal agent who had exchanged flirty texts
with Read, on the stand.
All three testified in the first trial and could be called by the
defense as it seeks to show O'Keefe was beaten at the house party hosted
by Albert and left outside to die.
Read’s attorney, Alan Jackson, still managed to raise concerns about
Higgins and Proctor.
During the cross-examination of Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuriy
Bukhenik, he made him read all the flirtatious texts between Higgins and
Read.
Jackson also brought up a text message chain with Bukhenik in which
Proctor said, “I hate that man, I truly hate him” about David Yannetti,
an attorney for Read.
Stick to the evidence
Broken pieces of Read's taillight. A broken cocktail glass. Read's words
the scene.
Prosecutors have spent much of the trial building their case through
evidence from the scene. Like before, they started by introducing
several law enforcement witnesses who were among the first responders
and recalled hearing Read repeatedly say “I hit him” after she found
O'Keefe.
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Dr. Judson Welcher, Biomechanical Engineer and Accident
Reconstructionist, testifies during the Karen Read murder trial at
Norfolk Superior Court, Tuesday, May 27, 2025, in Dedham, Mass.
(Matt Stone/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)
They also played several clips of interviews Read has done since the
first trial, in which she talked about how much she drank and made
comments suggesting she knew what she did. She also talked about
pulling a piece of glass from O'Keefe's nose.
“Could I have clipped him? Could I have tapped him in the knee and
incapacitated him?” she said during an interview for a documentary
on the case. “He didn’t look mortally wounded, as far as I could
see” but “could I have done something that knocked him out and in
his drunkenness and in the cold didn’t come to again.”
Prosecutors called a neurosurgeon who testified O’Keefe suffered a
“classic blunt trauma injury” associated with falling backward and
hitting the back of his head.
Prosecutors also showed jurors pieces of the Read's broken
taillight, which they say was damaged when she hit O'Keefe. The
defense argues the taillight was damaged later when she was backing
out of O'Keefe's house and hit O'Keefe's car.
Prosecutors also introduced evidence of a broken cocktail glass,
found at the scene, which they said O'Keefe was holding when Read
backed into him.
DNA evidence played a part
Andre Porto, a forensic scientist who works in the DNA unit of the
Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab, detailed various items he
tested, including the broken rear taillight and pieces of a broken
cocktail glass found in in the yard. Only O'Keefe was a likely match
for both.
Porto found three DNA contributors but only O’Keefe was a likely
match. He also tested DNA from parts of a broken cocktail glass
found in the yard and only O’Keefe was seen as a likely match. Porto
also tested a hair found on the taillight.
Later in the trial, analyst Karl Miyasako of Bode Technology
testified that tests of the hair sample taken from Read’s vehicle
found a mitochondrial DNA match to O’Keefe. He said that means the
DNA could be a match to O’Keefe or any one of his maternal
relatives.
What's next for defense
The trial could easily continue several more weeks as Read's defense
team makes its case. Read has said the defense's case will be “more
robust” this time. It listed over 90 witnesses who could testify.
“I'm anxious for everyone to learn what we know,” she said last
week.
Read's defense has vigorously questioned the prosecution's witnesses
and called into question evidence presented about O'Keefe's death.
During opening statements in April, Brennan said Read “admitted what
she did that night” and pointed to a television interview in which
Read said “could I have clipped him?” about O'Keefe's death.
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